It takes many hands, many talents to bring Binghamton's projection festival to life.

It took more than a village to bring together one of the animations that will illuminate Binghamton during the second LUMA light projection festival on Friday.

In fact, the team behind the B.C. cartoon story — which will be projected on the rear of The Forum — stretches all the way to Los Angeles, California.

Apalachin native Zach Mulligan, an animation production assistant with Jim Henson’s Creature Shop in Los Angeles, worked with Mason Mastroianni, of John Hart Studios in Binghamton, to create the animation, only with the LUMA team to repeat a collaboration that first debuted in the September 2015 festival, when an estimated 20,000 people flooded the streets of downtown Binghamton to see the faces and sides of five downtown buildings come to life.

Mulligan moved to California two weeks before LUMA 2015. Almost all of his work on the animation premiering Friday has been done remotely, working extra hours from his work computer in Los Angeles after the rest of his coworkers had gone home for the night.

Instead of meeting for lunch meetings at Lost Dog, there were Skype conferences, persistent Facebook messages and countless phone calls turned into project meetings at 1 in the morning.

Mastroianni and his brother, Mick Mastroianni, also of John Hart Studios, came up with a story, gags and characters — look for a surprise appearance by the Wizard of Id — in their local studio.

Mason Mastroianni hand-drew orthographic drawings of each character from the side, from above and from a three-quarter view, to simulate a three-dimensional representation, then scanned and emailed the drawings to Mulligan, who created the three-dimensional models digitally.

The same goes for story boards: drawn, scanned and sent.

"We're all so digitally-minded anyway it's almost like we were all in the same room," Mastroianni said.

Mason Mastroianni(Photo: Photo provided)

Status quo, then, until you consider this is projection mapping, not just animation, and Mulligan, faced with the task of making a building come to life, took an in-person look at The Forum only once.

Last year, he could study the building that houses Townsquare Media on Court Street — the same building upon which the B.C. animation was projected — up close and with a fine-toothed comb.

But Mulligan spent the past few months studying a photo of the rear wall of the Binghamton theater, instead, figuring out how to digitally highlight and even rearrange the architecture — the rings in the design, the brick work and the shape — with computer programs like Adobe Premiere and Blender to create a three-dimensional animation.

"The main thing is to incorporate the actual building itself rather than using the building as a giant projector screen," Mulligan said.

A complete render of a character animation moment in the B.C. projection for LUMA.(Photo: Photo provided, Zach Mulligan)

After a successful event in 2015, when LUMA took more than a dozen high-powered projectors and, using a technology called 3D projection mapping, covered the sides and faces of five buildings on and near State Street with animated visual displays, BingPop announced the date for LUMA's second festival with this goal: to make it bigger and better than its first.

A big part of that was boosting the building mapping aspect of the animations.

"It's different than projecting a movie on a big screen," Bernard said. "It becomes mapping when we make use of that building."

Mulligan(Photo: Canon Brownell)

For the second time, The Forum will be one of four buildings in Binghamton LUMA will use unconventionally to produce a community spectacle.

Now consider this curveball: The B.C. comic animation on The Forum will be projected in sync with a soundtrack provided by a 48-piece orchestra, performing live.

Exciting, yes, and also terrifying.

"It's always a fingers-crossed situation," said LUMA co-founder and creative director Nick Rubenstein. "Every aspect is something we’re inventing along the way. Everything is an experiment."

This year's experiment is trying to exactly match the movements of the B.C. story and its cast of characters with a live performance by the Binghamton Philharmonic, who will perform in a familiar space — The Forum stage — in an unfamiliar way.

An drawing of Gronk, a B.C. comic character, in an animation still.(Photo: Photo provided, John Hart Studios)

Principal Guest Conductor Daniel Hege will face the orchestra, while the professional musicians will sit with their backs to the plush red seats of the historic theater and instead face their audience through the opened loading dock door. LUMA supporters will gather below them on State Street to hear the musicians play and see the animation unfold above their heads.

In addition to a copy of the musical selection — three excerpts selected carefully by the Mastroianni/Rubenstein team to best fit the tempo, progression and mood of a B.C. story. — Hege will have a monitor in front of him and a headset, tools providing him with a metronome, a click track, the recorded animation soundtrack and a visual of the animation itself.

"It poses a different sort of challenge," said Hege, who has conducted similar projects before. "Everything has to be gauged carefully. You can prepare, prepare, prepare, but you never know what’s going to happen until that moment comes."

An orthographic drawing of a B.C. comic character.(Photo: Photo provided, John Hart Studios)

That moment — after all the Dropbox files have been shared, the Facebook messages ceased, the last notes rehearsed — will be the first time many of the project's team members see the finished product for the first time, right alongside the community.

For a festival hinging on collaboration throughout the community, even across the country, it fits.

"It’s kind of a community project in a lot of ways," Mastroianni said. "It’s all done by people trying out something new. It’s Binghamton. It should just be fun."

In addition to collaborating with the Binghamton Philharmonic, LUMA organizers have done a few things differently this year.

Here's what you need to know:

A juried competition, open to artists across the country, was held in advance of the festival this year, and will earn one winner a $5,000 prize for best original film or animation. The winning submission, and two runners-up, will be displayed on the building housing The Shop restaurant on Washington Street in Binghamton during the festival. There will also be a chance to see all of the contest entries on Thursday, when they will be projected on the same building.

This year, LUMA partnered with Christie Digital, a global projection company, and New City Video & Staging, who have helped organizers ensure the projectors they use for the animations are twice as bright and bold this year, "16 times the strength of an office projector," Bernard said.

Both the international partnership and the competition have been part of a longtime vision for LUMA co-founder Tice Lerner.

"I always envisioned the future of LUMA being not just a festival where projections are happening, but rather a festival modeled after the spirit and idea of film festivals," Lerner said. "The juried competition is really the beginning of something really big."

And the partnership with Christie Digital, he said, puts LUMA on the map, a local event with an international crowd.

The festival begins at sundown, but all of the animations will run on a loop throughout the night. "You could come at 11 (p.m.) and see everything," said LUMA co-founder Joshua Bernard. You can also start at any building you want, there's no order to stick to, and volunteers will be walking around to help point you in the right direction. Just keep an eye on the projected timers on each building, they'll indicate when the next animation will start.

One exception is the Binghamton Philharmonic performance. If you want to see and hear the Philharmonic play alongside the B.C. animation, there are scheduled performances. Be sure to grab a spot on State Street at 9:25, 9:55, 10:25 or 11 p.m., when the 48-piece orchestra will provide the soundtrack to the giant animated projection above them on the back of The Forum.

IF YOU GO

What: LUMA Projection Arts Festival

Where: Downtown Binghamton; Five feature animations will be projected on four buildings in the city: Atomic Tom's, The Forum, The Shop and the building housing Townsquare Media

When: The festival begins at sundown , but the five-minute animations run on a loop throughout the night. The live performances by the Binghamton Philharmonic will coincide with scheduled projections at 9:25, 9:55, 10:25 and 11 p.m. on the back wall of The Forum on State Street.